Sudan Update 16

In some ways life is easy here--simple and basic. My daily options are routine; variation is limited. I work, sleep, and eat. I take care of myself and socialize with my colleagues. I ensure that I drink enough water, use the washroom when the opportunity arises, scan my surroundings, and always have medical supplies and food/water with me. The basics are paramount: survival first, sanity next, and happiness after that. It is a unique experience to be able to remove the daily noise and hustle that is ever-present in our society and witness what remains. Many of the complications: greed, conflicting priorities, running around trying to check off a never ending to-do list and then dropping into bed at night, exhausted, are mostly absent from my day to day African life. Don’t get me wrong. There are many days when I am physically and emotionally drained; when patrols are difficult, situations are near hopeless, driving is tense, security is threatened, and dangers are present. But these are not superfluous things--they are part of survival here. Taking the time to step back and simplify life is one of the prime lessons that I will try to retain from this experience--at least for awhile, until our society drags me back into its reality.


 
5 July 2011 patrol to BIRISI, 20 km from YAMBIO and a one and a half hour drive. I was driver of vehicle 2 of a four vehicle convoy consisting of 2 UNMO and 2 Force Protection vehicles. While the road wasn't too bad it definitely wasn't good either. Navigating it required some interesting driving. Imagine 20 km in first and second gear for the whole way. My excitement at hitting third gear was short lived, about six seconds actually before I had to gear back down for a massive road block! It was a great final trip as a driver!



BIRISI is really just an SPLA camp with very few civilians there. We met with the Platoon Commander from BIRISI and the Company Commander from GANGURA and had a pleasant discussion.





Their excitement concerning their upcoming secession on 9 July was palpable. They have been fighting for so long and had lost so many in the pursuit of this goal; now their day was finally within reach!

As we were leaving, I noticed a strange mini tukul high in the air. Our language assistant explained to me that it was a tukul for chickens. I love it!

We stopped and visited with some children, handed out many suckers, and took a myriad of pictures. Don't tell the UN or any of the tough military guys, but that is one of my favourite activities during each patrol ;)

6 July 2011 patrol to BAGARE, 8.4 km from YAMBIO and a twenty minute drive. I was patrol leader of a 2 vehicle convoy. Our plans called for Force Protection (FP), but since BAGARE is basically within city limits and on a nice new road I determined it wasn't required, and I was right. Past BAGARE though, on the same road SODIA - SAKURE to the DRC, FP is definitely required. Being unsure of the future of the mission, the new mandate, and the status of UNMOs within that web, I felt like this was my last patrol. It was a beautiful day and when we arrived there were about 70 kids running around and playing.

The centre of BAGARE is a school area, with two classrooms that have tukul roofs and another five that are under mango trees. We met with some local teachers and all the kids! It was wonderful to watch them run and play and experience their different personalities!

 

A grade 7 student read to us, in English, from his HIV/AIDS book.

The teacher asked if I would take a picture of all of the students in each grade, so I did. We then took one huge group shot with all of us as well.

As we left we shook all their little hands and visited a bit. There were many smiles and much laughing all around. On our way back to our team site, we stopped to hand out candies (the remaining ones that many of you have sent from Canada) to each child and small group of people that we encountered. This made them immensely happy!

I received an exciting package that contained an interesting item--a Tim Hortons' gift card. As you all know me, you can’t possibly doubt the intensity of my passion for Tim Hortons' coffee or the fact that I am seriously missing it right now! So, this appeared to be a seemingly touching gesture. But, let’s break it down a bit--I am in the middle of a jungle in South Sudan. There are no Tim Hortons here! A wide range of emotions followed: excitement at seeing the card, intense craving for a Tim Hortons' coffee, and waves of homesickness at not being able to have one. The slight lack of situational awareness on the part of the sender also made me laugh, as I figured confusion between a Kandahar gift package and a Sudan one to be the rationale behind the gift.

I have become increasingly daring (read: lazy) at night as I often walk across the lawn in my flip-flops rather than follow the path around the compound with complete disregard for the snakes and little animals that may be hiding out in the grass.

Of course, when it rains I stick to the path, since the whole grass area instantaneously floods.  

It is interesting, and noteworthy, to explore the normalcy of adaptation. Now that I am preparing myself to leave Africa and reintegrate into our society, I have begun to notice things to which I had grown accustomed. For instance, it is common practise to eat meat, or any food for that matter, with your hands because we often do not have proper utensils. Food and drink become communal with many people sharing and eating off of each others plates. Tables do not routinely have salt and pepper shakers but rather come equipped with a container of toothpicks that are used liberally after each meal. Meat is only tender if it is marinated for days; it is often a cruel and unusual test to attempt to find any meat mixed in with the bones and fat of a dish.

The accepted lower sanitary standards at restaurants, in bathrooms, and among general living conditions is noticeable when you step back. Toilet stalls turn into saunas in this extreme heat; leaving the door open becomes the only viable alternative that enables one to leave the bathroom without being completely covered in a blanket of sweat. Scavenging dirty soap is another strange phenomenon here. Amazingly, no matter how dirty the soap you still paradoxically feel it is better to use it to wash your hands than not when, in reality, it could be drastically dirtier than your hands already are!

I am now in JUBA and will be starting my out clearances tomorrow. I have a few more updates that I am hoping to write before I leave, in'shallah!

Sudan Update 15

UNMIS mission status. The UNMIS mandate ended 9 July 2011 with the secession of South Sudan from the Republic of Sudan. UNMISS (United Nations Mission in South Sudan) has now begun and we are firmly into a transition period, working to attain the new organizational structure and implement the new mandate. Information received has been slow, incomplete and often contradictory. Everyone is doing the best they can with the pieces of the puzzle that they control. 

  

Now, what does this mean for the people of South Sudan? The new mission falls under Chapter VII of the UN Charter, as opposed to the Chapter VI mandate of UNMIS. Hopefully the new mandate will prove to be more robust and allow increased protection of civilians.  The international community is not abandoning the people of South Sudan.







Personnel are redeploying from the northern sectors to the south ensuring that the South Sudanese have the support they require to successfully develop into a prosperous, secure, and peaceful nation. There are many advisory roles in the new mission for both the police and military who will impart lessons learned to the world’s youngest country through engagement in training, education, and joint patrols.  

What does it mean for my team site? From 7 – 13 July we were in a holding pattern with patrols halted while we waited for orders on how to implement the new mandate. We received interim direction to resume town patrols and simply increase their distance to show continued UN presence.

And so, on 15 July 2011, after a week without patrolling, I had the pleasure of being patrol leader for a UN presence patrol to NZARA. We did not meet any leadership or discuss the security situation; instead we stopped and talked with many locals, shook hands, waved, and handed out candy to the children. It was great to be back out on the ground. I hope it provided a measure of reassurance to the local population, demonstrating the international community's commitment to a continued presence in South Sudan. 

What does this mean for me? Well, my time here will come to a close sooner than I had expected and hoped. My end of mission, 21 Aug 2011 has now been changed to 31 July 2011. This final date will affect me and about 500 others since there are no positions for Capt UNMOs in the new mission. The military component will consist of Maj and LCol Military Advisors and Staff Officers (SOs). A separate mission in ABYEI (UNISFA) will continue to employ Capts as UNMOs and SOs. Many of my colleagues will be redeployed to other UN missions including MONUC (DRC), UNAMID (Darfur), UNISFA, etc. The rest of us are leaving a few weeks early. This means that over the next two weeks I will leave for JUBA and Khartoum for my checkout, and then back to Canada early August.

Ok, now back to the good stuff! I need to get caught up with all my patrol updates so that I can write about the festivities of July 9^th!

27-29 June 2011, Long Duration Patrol (LDP) to EZO, a distance of 155 km and a four hour drive.

On LDP we conduct a road move to our Temporary Operating Base (TOB) and proceeded with daily patrols from that location. For this LDP County Support Base (CSB) EZO was our TOB.

We departed YAMBIO late, as we waited for UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) personnel to arrive from JUBA to complete our eight vehicle convoy.

We moved ahead quite jerkily, practically stalling, as the driver of our lead vehicle seemingly learned how to drive while simultaneously attempting to overcome his fear of oncoming traffic (perhaps the best strategy is not to slam on your breaks in the middle of the road when a high speed vehicle is approaching). I was driver of vehicle 2. It was both hilarious and frustrating to experience this road move as we were on a beautiful main road yet failed to exceed 60 km/h.

Clearly, a few issues were unavoidable as we did have some bad weather with near zero visibility downpours where we struggled to crawl out of first gear.

We eventually arrived as night fell and set up camp in a sketchy building from the 1940s.

At least we have a roof over our heads -- barely.

There was no running water. The red bucket on the right is used to flush the toilet.



The back patio. My favourite spot in Ezo!



It was an interesting shower experience!

28 June 2011, patrol to BAGIDI, 31 km from EZO and a two hour and ten minute drive.

I was the driver for the Patrol Leader, an Egyptian LCol (the first UNMO car always has the patrol leader in it), our South Sudanese Language Assistant, and a Dutch UNPOL (United Nations Police). The drive was hilarious! My Egyptian friend is definitely not used to being driven around by a woman; this proved to be frustrating and hilarious at times! Many of the locals appeared to enjoy seeing me chauffeur the men, often doing double takes to ensure they had seen properly!

The road was incredibly rocky and bumpy; thanks to a healthy dose of rain, there were also some fun mud holes to play in!

None of this helped to ease my Egyptian colleague’s nerves, as we both had very different obstacle avoidance strategies in mind!

I must also confess that since I was a bit bored I wanted to have a little fun while driving. The result was priceless!



This was actually a section of the road! Seriously, so fun!

Upon arrival in BAGIDI, we were told that a local headman had passed away and all the villagers were at the funeral -- an unavoidable complication in an area with no communication network, so we were unable to call ahead to arrange the meeting.

The only person available in the payam was a middle aged, drunken man.

The BAGIDI police station and a policeman!





A quick stop in the BAGIDI jail for us!



After an entertaining, if not completely unfruitful meeting, we headed back to EZO, stopping along the way at the UPDF (Uganda People’s Defence Force) camp where we climbed the hill to discuss the security situation in the area with their commander.

Then we met with the EZO Commissioner and discussed the county’s itinerary for the secession celebrations.

They had an exciting schedule of events planned, which he eagerly shared with us.



That evening Canada Monopoly was a hit!



Daniel, our South Sudanese Language Assistant
with his first credit card!







Dennis, our Dutch UNPOL was the all powerful banker
 and Wael, our Egyptian Patrol Leader enjoyed
watching us play!



29 June 2011, patrol to NAANDI, meeting with EZO SPLA Commander and return to YAMBIO TS.

We began the day with a brief visit to the EZO SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) camp where we discussed the situation on the ground and the security preparations for the 9 July celebrations.

Officials here had been extensively coordinating with the local SSPS (South Sudan Police Service) and military forces from neighbouring countries. EZO is on the border of the DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) and CAR (Central African Republic) and there are also UPDF troops in the area, so much cooperation is required among the nations.



Me in the CAR!



It was exciting to cross the border into three distinct countries while simply travelling around the market and town!

We then met up with our convoy and headed back to YAMBIO.

On the way back, we stopped at NAANDI Payam, an hour outside of EZO, and conducted an informative meeting where we acquired information regarding the Home Guard (Arrow Boys) organizational structure as well as

continued issues with boreholes, lack of food, lack of teachers, and lack of medical facilities and supplies throughout the payam.

The road move continued from this point, breaking one further time to partake in the hospitality of our Bangladeshi Force Protection, who had made a lunch of spicy rice and beef -- yum! We arrived at the team site in time for our 1500 hrs daily briefing.

 

As an aside for those of you with enquiring minds -- I have finally perfected the art of peeing in an African toilet (hole in the ground).



Dislaimer: this is not the actual toilet in NAANDI.
This toilet is in LI RANGU, but it gives
the general idea!






I discovered this exciting fact when I encountered an especially small toilet hole in NAANDI. I had to psych myself up a bit for this new challenge, but I was successful! What a feeling of accomplishment.













There are many variables that you must contend with when using an African toilet including, but certainly not limited to: trajectory, velocity, creatures, bugs, and stance. You have to weigh the pros and cons of keeping the door open and having some light, against the desire for moderate privacy and being in the dark with many random creatures. You must also remember the intense heat and corresponding smells that accompany such close quarters.

Hands down my preferred health break location is in the woods; however, this scenario also holds a host of complications: animals, locals, spiders, bugs, dangerous plants, etc. I keep a whistle around my neck, just in case I need reinforcements from my colleagues at an inopportune moment! I must also thank the CF for sending me in green CADPAT (Canadian Disruptive Pattern camouflage uniform). This is the one and only time I am thanking them for this, as it helps camouflage me while using the washroom in the woods!

Sudan Update 14

My first update from the Republic of South Sudan! On Saturday, I had the pleasure of witnessing the birth of our world's newest country. It was truly a moving experience, but more about that in a future update. First, I need to take some time to catch up on the May - June patrols that I haven't shared with you yet!

16 May 2011 patrol to SANGUA. When planning patrols for this month (which is one of my jobs here -- planning locations, dates, and patrol composition), I did not realize that the original patrol date fell on a national holiday. Once our language assistant explained this, we decided to postpone our patrol to June as a show of good faith toward the population; no work on their day of celebration. Considering some of the recent bad press concerning alleged UN support to LRA (all part of an unfounded smear campaign), we felt this was the most prudent option. In town they held a large gathering to celebrate, with many festivities occurring in Freedom Square.

18 May 2011 patrol to LI RANGU, 37 km from YAMBIO and a 45 min drive. I was patrol leader, which meant that I was able to enjoy the ride and interact with the local population by waving and smiling as we went by. This is one of my favourite moments on patrol, and much more difficult to achieve while driving, especially on some of the roads here! LI RANGU continues to hold a special place in my heart and mind, though it's difficult to pinpoint exactly why. It is one of the more successful, safe, thriving communities that we have the pleasure of visiting, and this hopeful air is emotionally refreshing at times.

20 May 2011 patrol to NABIAPAI, 33 km from YAMBIO and a 130 min drive. I was communicator for a five vehicle convoy, as we had numerous UN civilians join us. During the drive, I was able to take many photos and note positive road and bridge construction along the route -- great signs of progress! As usual, it took quite awhile to reach our destination as the road was challenging with its abundant large ponds and interesting obstacles; you can't pay for this type of fun! We passed GANGURA without incident (no denial of Freedom of Movement) and eventually arrived in NABIAPAI. The market was completely empty, a possible indication of trouble. After a brief investigation we determined that the market day had been changed to Saturday. Apparently, town elders had found that people would start to drink the night before market day and continue for the whole weekend. So, all was "secure". We met with the local town leadership on the Sudanese side of the market first. I subsequently crossed the border to the DRC side of the market and met with the Congolese Army troops. We had an informative dialogue in French, where they expressed their concern, empathy, and commitment to helping their Zandi (tribe) brothers and sisters regardless of the concept of national borders. Unfortunately, there are no SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) troops in this area with whom the Congolese Army can work. The closest SPLA troops are an hour up the road. However, the UPDF (Uganda People’s Defence Force) is present and mobile.

22 - 26 May 2011 I was very sick and pulled off the long duration patrol (LDP) to TAMBURA. I'm not sure what happened. It may have been a bad encounter with some pork, or any one of a multitude of other daily dangers. Regardless, the BANBAT (Bangladesh Battalion) doctor listened to my stomach through three layers of clothes (he wouldn't let me take off my jacket) and ordered me to bed for three days. I almost went crazy! But, since he threatened me with the prospect that if my system was weakened I could more easily contract malaria, I stayed in bed! On that note, there have been a few cases of malaria here so far, but due to a less intense rainy season, outbreaks of malaria are not as bad yet as in previous years.

As noted above, the rains have come late and been sparse. This is very negative for the people here who depend on months of intense rain to cultivate their crops and sustain themselves. Many people are hungry, and as more IDPs (internally displaced people), refugees, and returnees are displaced, the situation becomes even more critical. Mango season is over, so the people no longer have this fresh food source falling from the trees. They are hungrier, but at least some of the issues that come with only eating mangoes are no longer present.

30 May - 20 June 2011 I was on my second CTO, as you have read about in my past two updates!

22 June 2011 patrol to RINGASI, 55 km from YAMBIO and a 70 min drive. I was patrol leader of a three vehicle convoy as UNPOL decided to join us. We had no National Monitors with us. The main concern of the local leadership was the food shortage caused by the lack of rain. They requested food aid for themselves and the many IDPs and refugees in their area. We had a discussion about registering IDPs and refugees, stressing the importance of ensuring this is done. However, they expressed their frustration, as last year they had given a registration list to an agency and had yet to receive aid for those people. They stated that they have difficulty managing their displaced population's expectations, as once they submit their names they expected to receive support. Sadly, this is just not the case. The process takes much longer and frustrations abound for all involved. They are also completely cut off from the outside world, communication wise. They use bike messengers to pass information as there is no cell or radio network. This is a common problem for a large part of our AOR (area of responsibility) and one that is completely outside of our mandate, but we sit, listen, take notes, and report the information. That is all we can do.

24 June 2011 patrol to MADEBE, 83 km from YAMBIO and a 100 min drive along a very nice road (by South Sudan standards). The purpose of this link-up patrol was to meet with a team from our neighbouring team site, MARIDI, and exchange information on the current situation in our respective AORs. It was a gorgeous day for a drive. I was driver of vehicle 1 so I determined the speed at which the convoy travelled, within our regulations of course ;). It was freeing to finally drive in fourth gear and experience the countryside at a different speed! An hour and a half to get there, a ten minute meeting with some tea and cookies, a photo shoot and handing out of suckers to kids, and we were off on our drive back to YAMBIO. Perfect! 

Showering in South Sudan is an interesting, stressful experience. How often have you turned off the water between rinsing different parts of your body to conserve it? Or strategically picked which area of your body most needed to be cleaned and started there just in case the water suddenly stopped? Or had to rinse off your feet once you were out of the shower because the water drain was broken and suddenly you were showering in a bathtub full of soap, dirt, and bugs? Also, I am still not used to the routine extreme water temperature variations. All in all, it is still better than no water! Privacy is a completely foreign concept as people continuously enter the bathroom and engage you in conversation while often leaving the door wide open. Recently, I also had the new, absolutely hilarious experience of using a field shower. The pleasure of washing your body with dirty water cannot be overstated; sometimes I wonder if I am cleaner before I begin to wash! Honestly, I am thankful to have working showers; even if they are often full of huge bugs that bounce off of your body while you are trying to clean it -- quite a disturbing sensation with closed eyes!